Old Hat
by practicalamanda
Summary: Kurt and Blaine meet again when they both go in to volunteer at an Obama campaign office. Reunion/makeup fic. post break-up. may contain spoilers maybe? GO REGISTER TO VOTE! Title and inspiration from Old Hat by Ben Kweller


**This one shot is for ****kawaii01 who had the 200****th**** review on **_**Brix Brax**_**. She wanted reunion Klaine and I couldn't resist adding in a get out the vote message in honor of today.**

**If you are 18 year old US resident and you still need to register, my favorite site for it is studentvote . org. There are also ways to register all over tumblr. You can also always call your local political office for either party and they should have forms there.**

**Some of this was inspired by **_**Old Hat**_** by Ben Kweller. It's a beautiful song and it's my head canon for what Blaine would be thinking if he breaks up with Kurt. No need to listen to it, but I totally recommend it. Those of you who know me and my stories, know that I actually really don't like angst, though so I'm likely not even going to bother watching the dreadful episode unless a miracle happens and they don't actually break up.**

It wasn't that Kurt hadn't expected to run into Blaine when he came back home. Kurt was taking columbus day weekend as a an opportunity to come back to Ohio and see his family. Running into his ex-boyfriend was inevitable, but Kurt had figured it would happen if he hit up the Lima Bean or if he decided to pop into Between the Sheets, not the Obama for America office in Columbus. Ex-boyfriend—that was a word Kurt never thought he would have to say. It always tasted bitter on his tongue, and just thinking it caused an ache in his chest. It wasn't permanent though. It couldn't be permanent. Blaine had said that they would be together again when he made it to New York. Their separation...it was only temporary.

They had both sworn that they would remain friends, but aside from a few perfunctory text messages, they hadn't really talked since Blaine had visited him in the city. Kurt hadn't even bothered to tell him he was coming home, but there he was, tiny, Nokia campaign phone pressed to his ear, talking animatedly to someone on the other end.

Kurt was only home to see his Dad and Carole. He missed them dearly, but he wasn't particularly interested in facing any of his old friends just now. But, it was Friday and both of his parents worked during the day and Kurt was left to while away the hours on his own. Kurt had never been particularly political, but after the President pledged his support of gay marriage the previous spring, Kurt figured that it was the least he could do to volunteer a little bit. Not to mention the fact that his dad was now involved in the re-election campaign as the Democratic senator from their district. He had been going to the OFA office in Columbus once a week for the entire summer and had done the same in Manhattan. Making phone calls was as good a way as any to spend his time until his parents came home. He had really enjoyed his time there during the summer.

Blaine had never come with him before, but there he was, dressed down in a pair of jeans, a t-shirt that had the gay pride rainbow Obama symbol on it, and the gray cardigan that Kurt had got him for his birthday the previous year. The sight of the cardigan alone was enough to make Kurt want to curl up into a ball an cry.

"Sir...sir?" a female voice came from the right side of him, "Sir, are you hear to volunteer?"

Finally, Kurt snapped out of his staring, "uh...yeah. I used to work here in the summer. I'm visiting my parents for a long weekend and I thought I would help out again."

"Yeah, there's a lot of turnover in the office when the summer fellows go back to college," the girl said, explaining why they hadn't met before. "But, we have a few new volunteers that are wonderful. In the corner over there is Sally. She's a freshman politics major at Ohio state. Next to her is Jeremy. He's the office manager of the democratic committee in this district, but he's visiting us for the day."

"And the guy with the cardigan over there is..."

"I know Jeremy," Kurt cut her off, unwilling to hear someone introduce him to Blaine like they were strangers, even if it felt more and more like they were lately. "My name is Kurt Hummel, my dad is Congressman Burt Hummel. Jeremy runs his office."

"Oh wow!" she said, completely forgetting that she hadn't introduced the last person, "that's so cool! My name is Sandy. I actually just applied for a job with Congressman Hummel for after the presidential election. I would be so honored to work with him."

"I'll put in a good word for you, then," Kurt said with a wink, concentrating on the girls happiness instead of the growing nerves in his stomach. It wasn't a very big office. It was only a matter of time before Blaine took a break from calls and saw him. "So how about I start talking to some voters?"

"Of course!" Sandy said, handing Kurt another one of the little cell phones. "I'm going to give you the list of people who have expressed interest in volunteering. Here's the volunteer calling script and I'm sure you're familiar, but here are the abbreviations we use for VoteBuilder. When you're done you can hand it back to me and I'll log them into the computer. Why don't you just take a seat over there. I'm sure Blaine won't mind a desk mate."

At the sound of his name, Blaine looked up from the paper he was scribbling on for the first time. Before Kurt had time to react, those familiar copper eyes were locked on his.

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Blaine always knew that he wanted make a difference in his life, but politics was never how he planned to do it. He dreamed of being on Broadway, but more realistically, Blaine pictured himself as a teacher or maybe even a dad. He'd gotten the political bug accidentally. Sam had begged him for help with his bid for senior class president and Blaine was so desperate to distract himself from how much he missed Kurt that he agreed. A few weeks later and Blaine was hooked. He found himself calling up the office that Kurt worked at over the summer and signing up for a time to volunteer.

He had been so excited to tell Kurt that he was following in his footsteps, but things had gone so horribly wrong when he visited, that he had never mentioned it. Blaine loved Kurt more than anything in world. He always would, but Kurt had said it himself, he was 'living in the future.' And Blaine was still in the past and he loved him way too much to hold him back. Blaine would be there soon, but for now he had to let Kurt fly free. He was convinced that it was the right thing to do.

What Blaine hadn't counted on was seeing Kurt walk into that very office on a seemingly random Friday in October. Blaine had the day off from school. Mckinley did teacher development on the Friday before Columbus Day so that the students had a four day weekend. Now that Blaine thought about it, that must be why Kurt was here.

"Hi, Kurt," he heard himself say, but he felt so numb that it was as if he was watching himself from outside his body. He was standing there, handsome as ever, hair in a brilliant coif and dressed like the sophisticated city boy he was meant to be.

"Oh, good," Sandy said, seemingly unaware of the silent conversation Kurt and Blaine were desperately trying to have, "you two know each other already. That makes things easier," she said walking back to her own desk.

Blaine almost snorted at that last comment. 'Easy,' was probably the last word he would use to describe the situation. He would have laughed if didn't feel so much like crying, or if he could make his face move in any way. One thing was for sure, he didn't think either of them were going to making any more phone calls that day.

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"One non-fat mocha and one herbal tea," the barista called out. Once they had both gotten over their shock, they had made their hasty excuses to Sandy and almost silently made their way to the coffee shop that was next door. The way they had silently made the decision to move together might have made Kurt smile in any other situation.

"No more medium drip?" Kurt asked, finally breaking the silence when the two were seated across from each other at a little table near the back.

"I'm trying to cut down on my caffeine intake. I was having trouble sleeping," Blaine answered, still not meeting Kurt's eye. "Well, maybe it's not the caffeine because I still can't sleep. I've barely slept since we...well since I came home."

Kurt took that opportunity to actually look at Blaine properly. In his shock, he hadn't noticed before, but he did look exhausted. There were dark circles under his eyes and his hair, while still gelled, was not as neat as usual. Most alarmingly, the beautiful twinkle he was used to seeing in his eyes was gone. "Blaine?" Kurt said, trying to catch the other man's eye, "Blaine, are you okay?"

Blaine looked up at Kurt but then quickly looked back down at his untouched tea. He didn't say a word. He was too afraid of breaking down completely. Instead he just shook his head. There was a long pause before he finally spoke, "I...I really, really fucking miss you."

Kurt was startled by the rough quality of Blaine's voice and the fact that he used a curse word. It wasn't like him and frankly, Kurt found it rather alarming. There were a million things Kurt wanted to say in that moment, but all that came out was, "why?" he asked. "Why did you do it then?" His voice wan't accusatory. It was confused and little desperate, but it wasn't an accusation.

"I...," Blaine thought for a moment and then finally met Kurt's eye completely, "I...I needed to set you free. Kurt, you deserve...everything. You deserve to to fly free in the greatest city in the world. You deserve to become the greatest fashion designer that ever lived and to win more Tony's than you have room for in whatever fabulous penthouse apartment you're going to live in. You don't need your high school boyfriend weighing you down. Like I said, next year, when we're both in New York, maybe I can begin to be worthy of you, but for now...I'm...I would just be an old hat sitting on your pretty head."

Kurt was crying at this point. He couldn't help it, "Blaine...don't you understand? You _are _my everything. You're not holding me back. I would never have gotten where I am without you and I don't want to know what my future would look like without you. I only want that penthouse apartment if you're living there with me."

"I was trying to give you freedom," Blaine was crying now, too.

"Well, freedom feels a lot like loneliness," Kurt said, quoting his best friend without realizing it. "You're right, Blaine, I want to do great things with my life. We're both destined to do wonderful things, but I can't do it without you by my side. I wish you had said all this when you were in New York. I never would have let you walk away if I knew this was why you were leaving me," Kurt reached out and took Blaine's hand, almost without realizing what he was doing. All traces of uncertainty vanished, however, when he felt Blaine squeeze back.

"I'm...I'm sorry...I just...I thought I was doing the right thing," Blaine said scrubbing his nose messily on his cardigan, not caring how gross he looked at the moment. Kurt had seen him at his best and his worst. "I just wanted you to be happy."

"Oh Blaine," Kurt said, rounding the table and pulling the other man into a hug. It felt so unbelievably good to have Blaine in his arms again. "Don't you understand? You _are _happiness, at least to me. Why don't you get rid of that tea, I'm sure it's cold by now anyway, and we can head back to Lima. I think I saw that there's a _My Fair Wedding _marathon on today and a jumbo bag of Pirate's Booty with our names on it."

Blaine wiped his nose one more time and nodded his agreement as he let Kurt lead him out of the shop and back into the campaign office to get his things. Jeremy and Sally were both out for lunch already and Sandy was still absorbed in her work at the computer. "Um...Sandy?" Kurt asked tentatively, hand still laced with Blaine's, unwilling to let go. "I think I'm going to take Blaine home. He's not feeling well."

Sandy looked up and spotted their hands, "oh..are you two..."

"Yes, he's my boyfriend," Blaine said, speaking up for the first time and squeezing Kurt's hand firmly.

Kurt turned and gave Blaine a heart stopping grin. "Oh, well okay...feel better, Blaine. I'll see you next week," Sandy replied.

"How about we both come in again tomorrow?" Kurt suggested. "I bet I could convince my dad to come and meet you if I bribe him with the promise of a visit to the restaurant down the street I never let him eat at," Kurt said, too happy to worry about monitoring his dad's diet at the moment.

"That would be amazing!" Sandy practically squealed. "I'll see you then."

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Kurt asked Blaine where he had parked and when he said that he had taken the bus, he pulled his boyfriend to his own parking spot. Before they got in, Kurt pressed Blaine up against the car and kissed him deeply, feeling Blaine melt beneath him for the first time in weeks. Finally pulling away, Kurt pressed their foreheads together, "you have no idea how long I've wanted to do that," Kurt said, leaning in for more kisses. "You're never going to be the old hat I put on my pretty head," Kurt whispered against his lips. They still had a lot to talk over, but for now, all that was important was that they were as in love as ever and that they were going to be okay.

**Okay, so I'm thinking that this might turn into a multi chapter at some point, but I don't like working on more than one WIP at once, so it would have to be when _Make 'Em Laugh_ is over. Let me know what you think and don't forget to register to vote no matter who you'll cast your ballot for in November!**


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